Many of the
regiment never saw a musket till they drew guns in camps beyond Richmond.
In the fight on Sunday evening of the Seven Days, this regiment was thrown
in reserve line. The regiment the 53d was supporting being pressed, an
artillery company was ordered up into a gap on the 53d's left, and the
Captain of the company gave orders to "fire and fall back" until the order
reached the color company, when the gallant Tom Sloan, Lieutenant
Colonel, came dashing down the line from the right and rallied the
regiment, returned them to their original position under heavy fire and
they held their position till night put a stop to further hostilities for
that day.

For that
misguided step the regiment of many "raw recruits" was stigmatized by some
of the older soldiers. "The Bloody 53rd, the Twentieth Georgia Army Corps,
etc." At last the crowning victory of the seven days fight around Richmond
where Gen. R. E. Lee showed beyond all doubt his superiority of
generalship over the best general the Federals ever had. Gen. George B.
McClellan, the Malvern Hill victory, this regiment did gallant
service. The 53rd Ga. Regiment never drilled three weeks in preparation
for military service til after engaging in several hotly contested
engagements. At the battle of Sharpsburg, Md., Sept. 17th, 1862, where
Lieut. Colonel Tom Sloan was shot down, and Major Sims and
nearly every officer had received wounds, that grand old military
chieftain, Lieut. Gen. James Longstreet forever removed the
uncalled for stigma by complimenting the gallant 53d on the battlefield;
and from then on till the lamented General Lee, surrendered a small
remnant of the 53rd with his shattered and broken down army at Appomattox
Courthouse, did the gallant regiment do valiant service: Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville, Culpepper Courthouse, Gettysburg; then to the Army of
the West, with her brave and gallant chieftain Longstreet, through
to Knoxville, back to Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and down to
Richmond; and in the last regular engagement of the Army of Northern
Virginia, at Ameliar C. H., nine tenths of the regiment was captured with
General Ewell's command three days before the surrender, and spent
three months in Northern prisons. On detach service under the gallant,
dashing Maj. Gen'l. Kershaw, with Gen'l. Early's army in the
Valley, October 19th, 1864, the regiment scored a splendid record. The
regiment had the misfortune to lose, killed on the battlefield, five
lieutenant colonels, as follows: Lieut. Col. Tom Sloan at
Sharpsburg; Lieut. Col. Hanee, at Gettysburg; Lieut. Col. R. P.
Taylor, at Knoxville; Lieut. Col. Glass, at Spottsylvania; and
Lieut. Col. Wiley Hartsfield, at Ameliar C. H. With twelve hundred
(1200) in her first fight and not over two hundred (200) in her last, she
made a record that history may never recount - a record that
will live as long as kith or kin of her survivors lives.

Fellow
soldiers and officers, let us reunite, somewhere. I will suggest the city
of organization, Griffin. She is no longer the town of Griffin of 1862,
but the manufacturing city of the New South. Why Griffin? you say.
Because, she gave us our first colonel - a camping ground - she shared her
hospitality with us. It was freely shared without cost to us. (I know
whereof I speak.) She is nearest in the center of the regiment, with
railroad facilities sufficient. Many of us are old men now and soon we
will pass away. I assure you, Griffin will share her hospitality again
with her regiment the 53rd Ga. Volunteers. I would like to tramp upon the
same old camping ground with all the survivors of our gallant old
regiment. One day spent in reunion would dispel the gloom of twenty two
years separation. I have received several letters from gentlemen from
Newton, Pike, Carroll, Henry, Butts and Spalding counties, saying "old age
and decrepitude are crawling upon us, and we would like so much to visit a
reunion before we go hence to be no more." So would I, dear brethren of
the Lost Cause.

I felt
constrained to give this sketch not a full history. I rejoice in my old
age that I was a member of the 53d Georgia Regt., Seeme's,
Bryant's, and then J. P. Sims Brigade. McClaws and then
Kershaw's division, Longstreet's corps, and the Army
of Northern Virginia.

Newton,
Henry, Monroe, Pike, Coweta, Fayette and Carroll papers, if friendly to
reunions, please give of your valuable space the sketch and you will very
much oblige.

Through the
Griffin News I presume the subject of reunion can be discussed or you can
address me at Haralson, Ga. - W. L. Taylor

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